The wild, highly collectible covers of men's adventure magazines (aka MAMs) were absolutely crucial to a magazine's success. Competition on newsstands was fierce, and attention-grabbing cover art and headlines meant everything. Cover artists had to provide more than just great illustration art; their work had to rope in readers (and revenue) in a highly competitive and very crowded field.
MORT KÜNSTLER launched his career creating those illustrations. In those magazines' pages (and on those covers), his work brought the fantasies and daydreams of American males to vivid life with rich, explosive color and an enviable sense of scope and grandeur. He served up spectacular depictions of epic action, exotic adventure, hard-boiled crime, survival, and courage on the battlefield. The Men's Adventure Library's MORT KÜNSTLER COVERED VOLUME 1 collects an eye-popping array of Künstler's covers in full color.
The collection also includes a scene-setting new edit of co-editor Deis's historic 2011 interview with Künstler. This comprehensive conversation was one of very few occasions the artist spoke at length about his years working in MAM illustration.
MORT KÜNSTLER COVERED VOLUME 1 is available in softcover, and as a handsome casewrap hardcover with 20 additional pages of Künstler covers. Both editions measure 8.5" x 11".